THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 71 port resumed commercial activity. As early as May 1843, U.S. President John Tyler appointed a new consul for the city: John W. Fisher, who took up his post in October. In this geologically unstable and meteorologically turbulent region of the Caribbean, the U.S. consulate in Pointe-à-Pitre was confronted with other natural disasters. In particular, its building as well as the residence of the head of mission were destroyed by the Okeechobee Hurricane in September 1928 (but then-Consul William H. Hunt survived). The consular post was definitively closed the following year, after almost a century of existence. As for the unlucky consul Felix H. Suau, his story has faded over time but remains linked to that of the 1843 disaster. Fortunately, as the result of diligent research by several AFSA members, his name was inscribed on the AFSA Memorial Plaques in the C Street lobby of the Harry S Truman Building in 2021. Researchers had identified a total of 56 diplomats and consular officers dating back to 1794, whose deaths were unknown when AFSA unveiled the original plaque in 1933. The AFSA plaques honor Foreign Service members and pre1924 diplomats and consular officers who died under circumstances distinctive to overseas service for the U.S. government and American people—and the young consul, Felix H. Suau, is now among them. n This engraving depicts Pointe-à-Pitre before the earthquake of February 8, 1843, and was published in a booklet in Naples, Italy, March 1843. GUADELOUPE DEPARTMENTAL ARCHIVES
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